The U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) recent release of an advance copy of its final rule on website accessibility for state and local governments under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provides a...more
4/24/2024
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Compliance ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Educational Institutions ,
Federal Funding ,
Final Rules ,
Health Care Providers ,
Public Accommodation ,
Rehabilitation Act ,
Title III ,
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) ,
Website Accessibility ,
Websites
On February 9, 2024, a federal judge in the Western District of Pennsylvania departed from earlier rulings in the district to hold that an online retailer’s website and its other digital properties did not constitute a “place...more
On January 12, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that would require accessible medical diagnostic equipment...more
On December 5, 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States vacated a case over whether a self-proclaimed “tester” had standing to bring Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) claims against a hotel that she did not plan to...more
On September 13, 2023, the Court of Appeal of the State of California, Fourth Appellate District, covering Orange County and San Diego County and the southernmost areas of California, held that the Americans with Disabilities...more
10/10/2023
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appellate Courts ,
Brick-and-Mortar Stores ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disparate Impact ,
E-Commerce ,
Internet Retailers ,
Public Accommodation ,
Substantial Nexus ,
Title II ,
Unruh Civil Rights Act ,
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) ,
Website Accessibility ,
Website Owner Liability ,
Websites
In August 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would make the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) the standard for compliance for state and local governments...more
10/10/2023
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Compliance ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
NPRM ,
Private Sector ,
Public Accommodation ,
Regulatory Standards ,
State and Local Government ,
Title II ,
Title III ,
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) ,
Website Accessibility ,
Website Owner Liability ,
Websites
On October 4, 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in a highly-anticipated case over whether a self-proclaimed “tester” plaintiff has standing to bring Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) claims...more
10/9/2023
/ Acheson Hotels LLC v Laufer ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Disability Access Claims ,
Fair Housing Act (FHA) ,
Hospitality Industry ,
Hotels ,
Mootness ,
Oral Argument ,
Public Accommodation ,
SCOTUS ,
Standing ,
Title III ,
Websites
In a presidential proclamation on the 33rd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), President Biden stated that the landmark civil rights law “has had a profound impact,” but the United States has “much more...more
When one of our clients recently received nearly-identical demand letters from remote, unrelated, and unrepresented parties claiming website accessibility and threatening legal action for damages under the Americans with...more
4/25/2023
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Best Practices ,
Bots ,
Demand Letter ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Public Accommodation ,
Title III ,
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) ,
Website Accessibility ,
Website Owner Liability ,
Websites
The Supreme Court of the United States agreed to hear a case concerning a self-appointed “tester’s” standing to bring claims alleging a hotel violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to provide...more
4/10/2023
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Article III ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Disability Access Claims ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
SCOTUS ,
Split of Authority ,
Standing ,
Website Accessibility ,
Websites
On September 21, 2022, the U.S. Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (Access Board) issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) as the first step in a process toward establishing...more
On August 1, 2022, the Court of Appeal of the State of California, in Martinez v. Cot’n Wash, Inc., resolved two outstanding issues in the website accessibility field in a way that limits the reach of the Unruh Civil...more
The U.S. Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (commonly known as the Access Board) announced that it intends to issue an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) under the Americans with...more
More than a year after oral arguments in Calcano v. Swarovski North America Ltd., No. 20-1552, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of five nearly identical lawsuits brought by...more
The Supreme Court of the United States, on April 28, 2022, held that emotional distress damages are not available for private discrimination claims under the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Affordable Care Act...more
5/20/2022
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Emotional Distress Damages ,
Federal Funding ,
Health Care Providers ,
Medicaid ,
Medicare ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Rehabilitation Act ,
SCOTUS ,
Spending Clause ,
Title IX ,
Title VI
Almost twelve years after it first proposed to issue website accessibility regulations, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on March 18, 2022, published “Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA.”
The new nonregulatory...more
The Court of Appeal of the State of California, Fourth Appellate District, recently handed a potentially significant website accessibility win to the business community under the Unruh Civil Rights Act (Unruh Act) when it...more
For years, Scott Dinin was one of South Florida’s most prolific filers of Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) cases. His run ended two years ago, when, after obtaining default judgments against two gas...more
9/2/2021
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Disgorgement ,
Frivolous Lawsuits ,
Gas Stations ,
Injunctions ,
Misrepresentation ,
Public Accommodation ,
Sanctions ,
Standing ,
Title III
On April 7, 2021, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals rendered its long-awaited opinion in Gil v. Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc., reversing a trial court’s decision against Winn-Dixie, holding that websites are not places of...more
The California Department of Public Health’s newly issued “Guidance for the Use of Face Coverings” replaces a patchwork of county and municipal standards with a statewide standard mandating face coverings in businesses and...more
In a big win for Starbucks and all other restauranteurs, retailers, and places of public accommodation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held in three related cases (Johnson v. Starbuck Corp., Lindsay v....more
In handing down the first decisions of their kind, a federal district court in New York rejected two plaintiffs’ claims that retailers, restaurants, and other places of public accommodation were required to offer Braille gift...more
While many traditional places of public accommodation, such as theaters, stadiums, restaurants, amusement parks, and retail stores, have shut down their operations in response to “shelter in place” and “social distancing”...more
This month marks the 55th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This monumental legislation, which was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 2, 1964, changed the course of history with its sweeping ban...more
7/16/2019
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
EEO-1 ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Pay ,
Labor Regulations ,
LGBTQ ,
New Legislation ,
Quorum ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Salary/Wage History ,
Service Animals ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
USCIS ,
Wage and Hour
The Department of Justice has finally broken its long silence on website accessibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the news is both good and bad. The bad: the Department rejected calls from the...more